black truffles available at Whole Foods, good or bad?

hello all, I heard from a friend about these $4.99 jars of black truffles being sold at Whole Foods (in Union Square, NYC) so I went and bought about 4 jars, figuring it was dirt cheap. They come in small jars in "truffle juice", branded URDET (a spanish company, I believe) and imported by CHEESEWORKS (from new jersey). My question is, anyone tried these yet? I opened it up and they do NOT smell like the truffles I've ever eaten (oils, or infusions, etc.) and actually smells kinda bad but I'm just not sure. also, I've never seen them packaged like this; only in oil, or dry, or in rice. has anyone else seen these or bought these? thoughts would be well appreciated, thank you.

basically, the english summer truffle. all makes sense now. the lesson? if it's too good to be true, then it's just not true. now the question is, does anyone have any good recipes for black summer truffles?

I don't know if it's the same species, but there's a truffle along those lines eaten in North Africa - you might try a search along the lines of "truffle morocco OR algeria" (w/o the quotes) IIRC, they're used pretty much like one might use canned button mushrooms (ie, don't expect miracles, even given what they are.)

Bottled truffles in "truffle water" will never have the same amazing aroma or taste of fresh truffles, no matter what the variety. Quality fresh truffles simply can't be purchased on the cheap (unfortunately).

Fresh or canned, black truffles will never have the aroma of white truffles. They're very different delicacies, though complementary.

Real black truffles (Tuber melanosporum Vitt.) are more about flavor than aroma and to my palate are much tastier cooked. Some peole like the aroma of raw black truffles but to they smell kind of like library paste.

Real white truffles (Tuber magnatum Pico) are only about aroma. They're never cooked.